Photo Friday: Silvana Lima Double Grab Frontside Air on Jettygirl.com

Unlike most of our readers I’ve been alive since the first shortboard airs were attempted. Early on they were scoffed at and labeled as “tricks for kids.” Despite the backlash of the early days though, I can vividly remember even the grumpiest on-the-wave-face-only surfers saying things like, “If someone could do a functional air to make a section though, that would be acceptable.” Fast forward a few decades to the modern era and it’s an accepted fact that high-performance surfing also includes air time. Huge spins, flips and tweaks aside, punting airs to make sections isn’t as commonplace as I’d think it would be in 2011.

Enter Silvana Lima at Lowers this past summer. I was only able to shoot with Silvana once this summer and as always, it was jaw dropping. It was a gray day but she just lit up the place with huge snaps, lofty rotations and a double-grab over the section pictured here that had the beach in full applause. Even a photo sequence doesn’t do it justice. In my memory, the (missing) points between shot #1 and shot #4 were crazy as she moved forward to even out her flight path for extended distance. It looked really technical and gave me a little glimpse into how insanely talented the Brazilian surfer is…while others are just trying to launch into the air, Silvana is up above the lip so often that she now has time to think and adjust to make the flight even better. Must be nice to be that good…